This is a simple but long scene. That is why "Ice Cream" is a good scene to practice with.
The location
This is a mythical university in Vancoover, British Columbia, Canada
The characters
These are kids who try to save the world each week. The girl goes to school and eventually she will become a school teacher). The taller boy works as a helper in a florist shop where he is in love with a beatiful girl.
The story
In this scene, the beautiful young woman has just finished a class at the univeristy. Her two friends come to cheer her up because she is worried about a special animal that looks like an elephant.
The tall boy suggests that they get some ice cream because that always cheers him up.
Later, the girl feels good eating ice cream. But then the tall boy needs to leave. The boy pretends that he must go water his flowers but he actually is going to visit a pretty girl at a flower shop but he does not want to admit that.
The other boy plays a joke on him. The tall boy borrows the girls bicycle and the other boy loads him down with books so that he crashes. (This joke is supposed to be funny. This show is designed for kids.)
The challenge
This scene is not important. It is just filler. This scene sets up the action for the next two scenes.
Your job is to make this scene fun and entertaining. You need to keep the audiences from becoming bored. Therefore, the film score will be very important to keep the audience in the correct mood.
As an example, the bicycle crash at the end of the scene is not funny without music. You must use music to explain to the audience that this is supposed to be funny. There is nothing else which seems funny about this ending so all of the humor must come from the music and sound effects.
Also, music can help tell the story. As an example, when the boy beings to explain why he must leave, the music can explain the real reasons (which is the boy is in love with a beautiful flower girl.)
When you begin to create the film score for this scene, remember that musical effects are all that are needed. You do not need a full film score. If you have GarageBand and Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra (or a similar program which makes the sound of a symphony orchestra), you just need to find sounds that give you the correct mood. Nothing more is needed. See the course on film scoring for filmmakers.
Background sound is also important. The bicycle crash was filmed MOS which means it was filmed without sound (because the film was shot faster than normal. Therefore, you need to add "room tone" which, in this case, is the sound of the people at the school. Then you must add sound effects for the crash. To make the crash seem funny, the sound effects should not be realistic but rather funny crash sounds that the audience will find funny.
Edit this scene
Loan only
This disk is available from your instructor for a one month loan.
The Overview Movie
Start by looking at the overview movie. You need QuickTime Movie Player to view this movie (and the dailies.) The overview movie shows you the more important parts of the film dailies in chronological order. This makes editing the scene much easier.
Transfer the dailies
Copy the dailies (not the overview movie) to your hard drive. If necessary, convert the dailies to whatever format your editing program prefers. This will probably require QuickTime Pro. Import them into your editing program.
Edit the scene
Start by looking for the best audio. Once the audio (along with the picture) is edited and lock the audio. Then simply roll the picture edits to find the best visual transition.
Music needed
The mood must come from the music. There is not much in the dialog to help explain their fascination with ice cream or why Danny is really upset about being late or that the bicycle joke is funny.
This is very simple dialog. Each shot is very short. Therefore, amateur filmmakers feel that they do not need to rehearse. These actors make it look so easy. But remember, they have been doing this day after day for months. And before they begin filming every scene, they have the dialog completely memorized so they never have to think about it. This gives them the freedom to act natural.
Sound quality
As you listen to the sound quality, you will be amazed how bad it is. Actually, the dialog in the close up shots sounds perfect but all the rest of the sound is horrible. This is normal!!!
The only purpose of recording sound on an exterior movie set is to record the dialog. Everything else must ALWAYS be replaced. If you are lucky, you will get some sounds such as the chair being moved back when the boy has to leave. But all other sounds need to be added in editing.
The movie set?
When you watch the overview movie, try to judge what part of the location is real and what is added. Obviously, in the opening shot when you see the sign for the university, the university is real but the sign was added by the production designer for the TV series. The same for the ice cream stand. This is not part of the normal university.
How many actors?
When you film a movie, EVERYONE is an actor. No civilians allowed. When there are people walking around in the background, they are ALL extras. There are no real people in ANY of these scenes.
Never go out of character
When you film a scene, you must tell your actors never to stop being their character until the director says, "Cut". In Scene 5C, the beautiful and charming young woman forgets. Then she remembers and says, "Sorry" and the director laughs. Sometimes, the editor will need the extra footage. You never know.
Pop Quiz
Here is a quick way to earn extra points. Tell me how many extras are in this movie? 2 points.
